Super Bowl XLVII at the Superdome in New Orleans certainly lived up the pre-game hype, as the Coach John Harbaugh’s Baltimore Ravens sent Ray Louis out into retirement on top of the world with a thrilling 34-31 victory over his brother Jim Harbaugh’s San Francisco Forty-Niners late Sunday night.

The game was really filled with excitement as well as subplots before all was said and done. In a very emotional pre-game rendition of America the Beautiful, Jennifer Hudson performed with the Sandy Hook Elementary Choir. Alicia Keys followed with her rendition of The Star Spangled Banner before kickoff of sports’ most watched event.

Beyonce rocked the house with her halftime performance that included a reunion with the other two members of her former group Destiny’s Child. There had been rumors of a possible reunion, but Beyonce had refused to reveal whether or not that would occur in her press conference on Thursday.

From that point, the Ravens jumped out to a 22 point lead, cruising out in front 28-6. Just as it looked like the game would turn into a blowout, a REAL blowout took place when the lights suddenly went out inside the Dome, leaving the 71,000+ fans in attendance in the dark for a few seconds. Emergency generator power kicked in and there was some light, but not nearly enough for the game to continue. It took 34 minutes for full power and resumption of the game. The outage came shortly after the beginning of the third quarter.

It turned out to be an advantage for the Niners, who came back from a near blowout to close the gap to 31-29 late in the game. Baltimore added a field goal to go up 34-29. The Niners had one last gasp inside the 5, but Ray Lewis and company met the challenge.

Joe Flacco, named the MVP of the game ran out all but 12 seconds in the final quarter before the Ravens had to punt. They wisely took a safety with 4 seconds left, bringing the score to 34-31. San Fran couldn’t make it to midfield on the free kick return and the game was over.

In their final press conferences on Monday morning at the Super Bowl Media Center in New Orleans, Coach John Harbaugh faced the media one more time before heading back home for a victory parade on Tuesday.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell began the morning with some opening comments.

“Some of you know I had the pleasure of hosting John Harbaugh’s parents last night in our box. It was fantastic, no incidents occurred, but they were terrific. John has done a great job since he became the head coach of the Ravens, making the playoffs all five seasons as head coach. It’s only been done by two other head coaches and then to win a Super Bowl on top of it, it says a lot about his ability to coach. I also admire what he does off the field. He’s really a guy that loves the game of football with a passion, and he’s demonstrated that. So, Coach, congratulations on your Super Bowl victory.”

Coach John Harbaugh followed with some opening comments. “We hadn’t seen this (Vince Lombardi Trophy) since last night. We thought we lost it. Thank you very much. Thanks for coming out. It was quite a night last night, and I’m just proud of our team, proud of our coaches and our players, happy for our families, and most of all, happy for the people in Baltimore. We saw some amazing pictures last night of in Baltimore of everybody partying. That’s what makes it all great. Probably the best moment of the night was not the end of the game – maybe the most emotional part of the night – was when the National Anthem was being sung and they got to the ‘Oh’ part. It was when the crowd yelled out ‘Oh,’ and it was the loudest ‘Oh’ I’ve heard outside of M&T Bank Stadium. I got a little choked up by that. It just meant so much the fans were able to enjoy that. Congratulations to Joe. Thank you to the NFL and all the amazing things they did to make this week great for us and for us to get a chance to compete. We just appreciate all of that.”

So, football is over for 6 months for the fans. Wives have their husbands back and after a week the husbands will bury the dead and be over their grieving, looking forward to the beginnings of training camp and the anticipation of yet another great NFL season in 2013. For many, it can’t come quick enough!